Reinforcement Construction

See FHWA’s CRCP Design and Construction Guidelinesfor the references included in this page. A new, more comprehensive FHWA CRCP Design, Construction, Maintenance and Rehabilitation manual is currently under development and this page will be updated upon its release in the spring of 2016.

Placing Reinforcement

Proper placement of reinforcing steel is an extremely critical aspect of CRCP construction. Detailed schematics should be provided by the contractor, approved by the engineer, and inspected in the field prior to paving to assure compliance with project standards and specifications. Longitudinal alignment and depth of the steel relative to the slab surface have a significant effect on CRCP performance.

Field studies have shown no significant difference in the performance of CRCP with steel placed on chairs and CRCP with steel placed using tube feeders as long as both are done properly.(73) However, chairs are used far more frequently than tubes because of the demonstrated benefits of using transverse steel, and due to the perception that they are more likely to result in accurate placement of the steel.

Regardless, some quality assurance measures are needed to assure the steel has not shifted during the construction process. Some states are experimenting with the use of magnetometers and ground penetrating radar for this purpose.